Argentina Day 4

Today we decided to do as many Portenos (People from Buenos Aires) do and escape to the outlying areas around the city. We went to the Retiro train station and took a train out to Tigre, an area outside of the city where the river flows into the Mar de Plata. It’s a delta, so there are tons of little islands and such. We enjoyed seeing the different people come by on the train trying to sell everything from CDs to tissues to food and drink. Upon arriving in Tigre, we were not quite sure where to go. We knew there was a big Feria, but were not sure where it was. We talked to some people at the train station who convinced us that their boat tour was the best. We paid a handsome amount for the four of us to go on our own raft tour through this beautiful area. They took us to a private dock where this tiny raft was waiting for us. We were a little skeptical, but went for it. It was cool to go through this unique area—everyone commutes by boats. We saw the school bus boat, the store boat, and a ton of personal boats. Our tour guide wasn’t the best—at one point he had a 10 minute conversation on his cell phone! But he did take us through some of the back streets and jungle-type of areas. It is a very different way of life up there!

School Bus and Shopping Boat

At the conclusion of our tour, we were dropped off at the HUGE feria where we enjoyed poking around the different stores for an hour or so before we had to jump back on the train to go back to Buenos Aires. There were some really neat things there—Hay and I got a nice Palm serving tray.

Back in Buenos Aires, we walked down Florida street, which is a huge shopping location filled with both stores and street vendors. The place was packed! As we walked, there were a lot of people standing on the side of the pedestrian street saying “Cambio Cambio” (Change change). The USD exchange rate to Argentine pesos is a little screwy right now. The official rate was about 5.2 pesos per USD; however, the real rate is more like 8 or 9 pesos per USD. We could have gotten much better rates from these sketchy people than from the ATMs, but we decided to pay a bit more and be sure we got real bills. I bought a Buenos Aires Mate cup from a street vendor, and then we went to Puerto Madero (right behind the Casa Rosada) for dinner. We had some delicious homemade pastas and noodles—definitely a good pick for dinner. The funny thing about Argentina is that their ‘dinner time’ is typically 10 or 11, not 7 or 8 when we wanted to eat. We were often the first ones in a restaurant or the only ones for the first while when we were there. We had one last good night sleep on the incredible mattresses before heading down to my mission in the south!

Turns out this bad boy is pretty pink at night!